1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the installation of a sliding rail in a server rack and more particularly to a sliding rail mounting structure that uses a magnetic locating member to couple each end of the sliding rail to a respective column inside the server rack.
2. Description of Related Art
A regular server rack is adapted to accommodate a number of servers at different elevations. Pairs of sliding rails are provided inside the server rack and fixedly connected between two vertical columns at different elevations for receiving servers. After insertion of servers into the sliding rails, servers are locked to the sliding rails. In a standard server rack, the two vertical columns each have a plurality of rectangular through holes disposed at different elevations for the mounting of the sliding rails and the sliding rails each have a plurality of circular mounting holes at each end for connection to the rectangular through holes of the two vertical columns, and therefore a locating plate is required for use as an adapter interface between the rectangular through holes and the circular mounting holes.
FIG. 1 illustrates a sliding rail mounting structure according to the prior art. As illustrated in FIG. 1, a locating plate 91 is used to couple a sliding rail 93 to a vertical column 92. The vertical column 92 has rectangular through holes 921 at different elevations. The sliding rail 93 has circular mounting holes 931 at the angled end flange. During installation, the locating plate 91 is attached to the vertical column 92, and then the sliding rail 93 is pressed with the angled end flange at the locating plate 91 against the vertical column 92, and then screws are inserted through respective rectangular through holes 921 of the vertical column 92 and fastened to respectively through holes in the locating plate 91 and the circular mounting holes 931 of the sliding rail 93. Because the locating plate 91 is attached to the vertical column 92 before installation of the sliding rail 93, the locating plate 91 may fall from the vertical column 92 during installation of the sliding rail 93. Therefore, the worker must attach the sliding rail 93 to the locating plate 91 at the vertical column 92 carefully.